3 days in the shed...

basicly cleaning up and putting things and tools away...tonight i feel like its a new shed.....

behind a bunch of stuff was this 4 leading shoe Robinson brake from the 60's that i bought about ten years ago...i've been saving it whilst collecting parts to build a period correct dommiracer for about that long....it cost me about 500 bucks when i bought it and about three years ago i got offered 3500 for it....beautiful and rare it is....and this one is in perfect nick.

also had a bit of time to rework mikes wl front brake setup....road tests have proven its just not sturdy enough...so im remaking and then we will send stuff off to powdercoat again after a road test...

its always hard with the brake stays on springers ... trying to mount a more modern drum with an offset...above is a new mount i made and below is the start of the new stay....at drum end...

more photos from chris' box.....

...his R69S that he had while he was working at Pappy Janes workshop

Pappy Janes bike....love the split pipes.

Ummm....is that one of the cops from Vanishing Point.?

round these parts....

lives an old biker named christopher, who has seen it all and done most of it more than once. he still rides one of his two panhead outfits every day, still builds bikes, and lives it probably just like he did when he was twenty..... i spent a few hours with him this morning and what he doesn't know about flatheads is nobodys business. 

this wl motor in this race bike used to spin to over 8000 rpm and running on methanol with an SU carb (fitted after this shot was taken) was clocked at 206km/hr 128mph.......

ill be posting some more photos of photos and stuff in the next couple of days....and ill be spending some more time with him cause we are working on a motor together.....good to see you chris.

Merry Christmas everyone....

i always try very hard to avoid political statements on the blog....thats stuff is for another time and place.
its been a hard year in many respects but i feel some kind of turn about to come. i hope that the people who govern our countries can maybe not waste so much time this year on rubbish and get on with making it a better place for us to live.

my sister pulled out this photo the other day of me in about 1973 with our first bull terrier, it reminded me of a time when life seemed so much simpler, all i had to worry about was how i would make my billy cart go faster.

i hope everyone has a safe and happy season, and that its peaceful and filled with good things and not bad.

thanks to all my friends all over the world

m

t shirts are back in stock....

i've got large and extra large again,....check out the size breakdowns for your particulars HERE....

and so it begins.....

I've started on the roundcase.....this is a big build for me, i have a lot to achieve with this one. I mentioned in the Iron and Air thing that i'm hoping to do something a little different with this bike. I want to document the build in film (at least mostly) and make it available to people who may want to watch it. I don't know how successful I will be but i'm going to try pretty hard.

It all comes back to that idea of passing on knowledge, just little things that we can learn from those who have done it all before. I have hooked up a few people who will be helping me with this build....Ian Gowanloch will be building the motor/box for a start. In my opinion there may not be anyone more qualified for the job....The motor and box were previously built in 1983 by Steve Wynne of Sports Motorcycles...you all would know his name, but if not he built Mike Hailwood's comeback SS that won the tt in 1978.
Here is the first paragraph from an Alan Cathcart article where Steve Wynne tells the story of how that came about....

"Steve Wynne is the man responsible for providing Mike the Bike with the means to make his victorious TT comeback, that has become the stuff of motorcycle racing legend. Wynne himself raced Ducatis successfully in the mid-'70s, but in his own judgement was better qualified to work on the bikes rather than ride them - especially with the pressures of building his Manchester-based company, Sports Motorcycles, into one of Britain's top sportbike dealers taking up so much of his time. But winning an Isle of Man TT remained an especially burning goal, and so to do so Wynne took a back seat as a rider and starting working towards TT success with hired hands."

see the rest of the article here...good reading....

This bike had been raced in Europe between 1984-1999 and during that time won a total of 200 races. It was brought to Australia by a collector a few years ago and it came into my possession through some totally freak events.

Ian Gowanloch (pictured) and I had talks about the bike and its frame geometry and it was thought that the roller should be taken to Laurie Alderton in Sydney to be viewed and if need be de-stressed and realigned. 

Here is the bike as it sits in the shed today. As you can see its been worked on in 18 positions. 

Next week, after the xmas fun I will be going to Ian Gowanlochs farm to pull the motor and start pulling it apart......cant wait.

when the girl you been seeing sleeps.....

in another bed for the first night......

we had a little get together this afternoon to toast mikes bike being finished, with some home brew by Charlot (thanks mate...thats sweet tasting stuff)...

mike rode his bike home.....there is a big hole in the shed now so i suppose i better do a clean up....

next up knucklehead and mark v le mans guzzi.

mike and his wl.....united at last....

up and down the dirt road with the brakes not connected like a trouper.....bike sounds and shifts great, forgot in all the excitement to put some air in the tyres.....

been a long time coming bro but its here now...

mikes wl out in the sun for the first time....

took my ES2 out on the weekend.